Human Again
by nightfeathers
Summary: Brief tale of what might happen if Henry were given the chance to become human. I could expand it into a full story if there is enough interest.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone, though goodness knows I wish I did.

AN: This is a quick short story version of something I've had in my head for a while. If there is interest I would be happy to expand it into a full story. The style is purposely succinct here, because I had to get it down before it was forgotten. Anyway let me know what you think and if you'd like to see some expansion.

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The envelope was plain, brown and utterly unremarkeable. He opened it casually, only half paying attention. He expected a bil, or an advertisement. Something along those mundane lines.

Inside the letter first made him scoff at it's contents, but as he read the feeling changed. Could it be true? Was there really a way? No, it was impossible, surely and yet... A tiny flicker of hope.

There was a phone number inside. A simple phone call. If it was a scam he'd wasted only minutes. If it was real, all of his dreams, the woman he loved would be his.

He picked up the phone, dialed the number. For a moment it seemed no one was home and then suddenly a voice, a single phrase.

"Do you want to be human again?"

He hesitated, swallowed hard. To give up his immortality, be a normal human being again, was a great step. He would be vulnerable. He would age, and eventually die.

Yet without her, wasn't he already dead?

"Yes." He whispered.

A date was set. A time and place to meet. They hung up, and he waited.

A single night that lasted forever. A day that passed in the blink of an eye and it was time. He met her in the park, the place he'd once battled a demon. There would be no more of that. He would be so easy to kill after this.

She arrived on time. A vampire like him, and yet nothing alike. A different bloodline, with different rules, she stood to gain nothing from this. The age old instinct to protect his territory didn't come into play here. She was his only hope.

A silver dagger flashed, and her wrist bled for him. He took it, drank from it. The blood had already been set. It went to work immediately.

Fire erupted in his body. He fell to the ground, agony coursing through him. Was this how death would come? On the wings of an angel of another species? She stayed with him though, holding his hand even when his grip crushed bone. The bones repaired instantly, she grimaced, but did not leave.

And then it ended, suddenly, like a light going off. He was exhausted, but she helped him to stand. Suddenly he realised how frail he felt. His stomach... was this hunger? True hunger such as he hadn't known in over four centuries? She smiled, nodded that it was.

She asked nothing from him. She took him home first. He changed, showered and she ordered food for his gnawing belly. Like a newborn he devoured, until he was truly sated. So easy to satisfy this human hunger, and no guilt. No broken bodies left behind.

She left then, this angel in disguise. Her number remained for him, but he knew he wouldn't need it. He napped on the couch, and woke up frightened at first of the light streaming in the windows. Yet it didn't burn. It was warm, pleasant.

He stood and walked to the window, his hand hesitant upoun the drapes. Then they were open and the light flooded the room and he was basking in it, unharmed. He laughed, lifted his arms to embrace the light for the first time in over four centuries.

A name popped into his mind, and he took a deep breath. To the phone, and another more familiar number was dialed. She was shocked, scared, and then once he explained even more so. Could it be true?

He drove to her home, and knocked on the door. She stood inside, breathless, uncertain. The door opened and he stepped in. She questioned, and he walked to the light. It shone around him, making him look angelic as he stood bathed in the light of day. She gasped, and walked over as if not believing her own eyes.

"You're human." She whispered, touching his face.

He nodded, his golden hair falling into his eyes. She smiled, and thier mouths joined. He took her to her bed. They were married weeks later. Neither could stand to wait. Time was precious now. The children came eventually, as many as he'd ever wanted.

One day he stumbed upoun that number, the one that had given him so much. He smiled, and gave thanks to the mysterious woman. She'd given him life, and all it had cost was eternity.


	2. Chapter 2

AN - I've added this to explain something of the woman who helped him. Not all is made clear, but it might perhaps help. She is a character I've had in my mind for a long time, but never used in a story before now. I'm glad you all liked the story. I am going to attempt a longer version expanding on Henry's point of view, but I'm not sure my writing skills are up to it. In any case, for now enjoy this todbit, and as always let me know what you think. :)

The body of a vampire, the power of a mage, yet she was truely neither, and she doubted there was anyone else like her in all the world. Commanding the power of the universe, she could travel not only anywhere in the world with a thought, but to any time as well. Her only purpose to serve the higher power who gave her this life, she has only one true regret.

For all her gifts, she lives life alone. Her greatest heartbreak is that no one can share in her life, and no one can ever know fully what she is. when she gave the vampire his life again, it was an act of mercy. He had something she would never know, and she couldn't bare to let him lose it because of his curse.

When he took her blood it wasn't only her blood. It was a small part of herself, like an echo. It was sent to do the one thing nothing else, no one else, could have done for him. It cleansed the vampiric elements from his body, and gave him back that which he needed most. His humanity.

How was it done? Even she didn't quite know. She only wanted to help him, and in doing so ease a small part of her own lonliness. The closest description would be like running his entire body through a filter, with only the human parts allowed to remain.

He lost his immortality, his strength, everything given to him when the vampiress had shared her blood with him. What he gained was something more precious than any of those who held it knew. He was mortal, able to love, and marry, and grow old with the one he loved until they moved on into eternity together.

After they parted ways in that park, he never saw her again, but she saw him. She was there, watching with an amused smile at the way he fidgeted in the afternoon light. His tuxedo looked amazing, but he looked like he'd rather be wearing jeans.

Vicki in her gown looked just as uncomfortable, but no one could deny the love shining in thier eyes. When Vicki walked down the aisle, she thought both thier hearts would leap from thier chests at the joy they found.

When Vicki tripped in her heels, the woman lifted a hand, the gesture barely noticable. Vicki recovered without anyone the wiser, and the woman smiled. They deserved this, for all the good they'd done in the world, and for all they had yet to do.

The next time she saw them was in a hospital. She was the nurse that handed his firstborn, a son, into his arms. He didn't know her then. His memory was faded and she'd altered her features slightly. She wasn't there to interfere. only to be there, and witness the joy she'd helped bring to thier lives.

When the child grew and went off to school, she was there that day. She was there to put a tack in the path of a car going to the same school. The tack blew the tire of the car, and prevented the man inside from reaching the school in time. When he got a jack out of his trunk she saw the gun inside, and the explosives, and she wept for the soul so lost in this world.

Her second regret, the one that tore at her as often as the first. She was only one, and humanity needed more. She couldn't be in two places at once, so she did what she could. She watched out for the lives of those she was able to see. Some of them had to be allowed to move on into the next, but they never went alone.

When it came Henry's turn she was there again, to see him one last time. She held his hand, and smiled as his eyes closed. When the one he loved joined him she was there to take her to him, and reunite them once more as she had when they were young. 


End file.
